🚨 An Afterthought – August 28 2025

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The Lead: The Afterthought Victims

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A Catholic community too, by the way…”

That’s how Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey referred to the Catholic parish that just lost two children in a mass shooting. An afterthought. His first priority in remarks was to reassure the trans community—because the shooter was trans.

Meanwhile, the New York Post went out of its way to highlight that the shooter was antisemitic, pointing to writings on his weapons about “Zionists” and “Jews.”

So in the media framing, the victims are trans people and Jews. The Catholics who were actually murdered? Oh yeah, them.

Why are they treated as an afterthought?

No one is trying to vilify trans people. The real question is whether the shooter was on medication—medication with well-documented side effects of violence and suicidal ideation. That’s not about vilifying anyone. That’s about asking a legitimate question: how safe are we living in a world where people prescribed these drugs may pose a risk to others?

If your first inclination is to protect ideals and not the real victims, you are just awful.

Whose Flag Are We Flying?

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said that 60% of those who post critical things about Israel are “bots…especially in America.” and that “we have to contend with it.”

The House of Representatives took that cue and launched an investigation into Wikipedia for what they allege are “efforts to advance antisemitic and anti-Israel information in Wikipedia articles related to conflicts with the State of Israel.”

Why is this a matter for Congress? Why would U.S. lawmakers concern themselves with how Israel is represented on Wikipedia? Shouldn’t their job be to safeguard American interests, not to police online narratives about a foreign government?

And it doesn’t stop there. A school district in California just voted to display the Israeli flag on all campuses and district facilities in an effort to “fight antisemitism.” What!? Public education buildings in the United States are now required to fly the flag of a foreign government?

School board members say that this is necessary because “Jews are being killed and slaughtered on the street, and threats are happening.” If murder is the metric we’re going for, the Palestinian flag should be displayed too, right?

This doesn’t combat antisemitism—it fuels resentment, division, and the very hostility it claims to oppose.

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 Covid Vaccine

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The Covid vaccine no longer has emergency use authorization, which it has enjoyed since 2021 despite Covid case numbers showing no emergency for years.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said this on X: “The emergency use authorizations for Covid vaccines, once used to justify broad mandates on the general public during the Biden administration, are now rescinded.”

The FDA also approved the vaccines for people over 65 or with pre-existing health conditions—but that approval is not based on new clinical trials. It’s based, according to Pfizer, on “the cumulative body of evidence supporting the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, including clinical trial data supporting the approval for children 5 through 11 years of age.” See what they did there? That’s not a new trial—it’s recycled trial data used to justify fresh approval.

So, what does this mean? Without an active emergency use authorization for the general population, the Covid vaccine no longer has the legal basis to remain on the routine childhood vaccine schedule. But as of now, we don’t have confirmation on if—or when—it will actually be removed.

Chasing Careers, Missing Life

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A new study shows that the longer you go to college, the less likely you are to get married.

Researchers from analyzed US Census data from over 8 million Americans and found that “when education levels rise in the U.S., the nation’s marriage rates fall.”

Researchers also found that each “additional year of schooling – counting from first grade to the end of any postgraduate degrees – reduces the likelihood that someone age 25 to 34 is married by roughly four percentage points.”

Why? Researchers suggest that educated people often think they’re too much of a catch to settle, or they’re more self-reliant and don’t feel the need to marry for support. But for those who never marry, did those reasons hold up? The study doesn’t say.

What it does say is that when educated people do marry, they’re less likely to divorce.

Here is the haunting part: data shows that college degrees have a lower ROI than ever before. So what if, in chasing a degree that never paid off—and puffed you up with an inflated sense of self—you ended up turning down perfectly good mates and walking right past your destiny, throwing away the chance for love?

If that’s true, have we taught young people the right priorities?

News By The Numbers

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$21 million. That is the estimated value of Forest Lodge, the new “forever home” of Prince William and Kate Middleton after they finish renovating it later this year. It is within the grounds of Windsor Castle.

4. That is how many children former tennis player Anna Kournikova and singer Enrique Iglesias will soon have because she is pregnant with the couple’s fourth child at the age of 44.

$22,000. That is how much disco legend Gloria Gaynor has reportedly donated to Republican politicians since 2023. If that surprises you, maybe check your bias—assuming all Black artists must be Democrats is racist. Gaynor is set to be honored at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors, but some Democrats are pressuring her to decline because of the event’s association with President Trump.

What’s Trending?

Photo credit: Marvel

Thunderbolts* is trending because the Marvel film is now available on Disney+.

Sheikha Mahra is trending because the Dubai princess reportedly got engaged to U.S. rapper French Montana.

Australian MP Bob Katter is trending because he called a journalist racist for asking about his heritage. The exact quote “Don’t say that! Because that irritates me, and I’ve punched blokes in the mouth for saying that. Don’t you say that! My family has been here for 140 years.”

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